Love ❤️, Friendship, & Everything Else

Chapter 21: Lies and Deceit

"It's not what you think Zac."

"What do you mean it's not what I think?" He said irritated. "You're here fucking some random dude while pregnant with my baby."

"You're pregnant?" The guy asked Tia confused.

"Man put some clothes on, both of you." Zac leaves the room so they can get dressed.

Tia puts on a robe and runs into the living room to explain to Zac.

"Zac let me explain."

"What is there to explain?" He asked Tia. "We aren't together, so I could care less who you're with. But to be sleeping with him while my baby is inside your stomach is trifling."

The guy enters the living room. "Tia, you're pregnant?" He asked again.

She couldn't risk him talking too much so she quickly tried to get him to leave.

"You need to go, Jody," Tia demands.

"No Tía, let him stay. He's a very important person in this situation. Stay Jody." Zac intervenes.

Jody doesn't know what to do. So, he sits down.

"Can you have a seat please so we can get to the bottom of this?" Zac requested.

Tia sits at the other end of the coach and Zac sits across from Jody.

"This should be good. Jody how long have you been seeing Tia?"

"A couple of months." He answered.

"And when did y'all start having sex?"

"Two weeks ago."

"And she never told you she was pregnant?"

"No." He said dumbfounded.

"Has she ever mentioned me, Zac Taylor?"

"She said y'all broke up months ago."

"Oh okay."

"That's enough Zac. Jody, you have to go."

"Not till he answers one more question. Jody, have you and Tia been out drinking?"

"Yeah, a couple of times."

Zac is now fueled with anger. "Ok Jody, now you can go. Tia, I'm scheduling a doctor's appointment for this week. I'll text you the time."

He walked out of the house leaving Tia speechless.

"I know this girl better not be lying to me as good as I've been to her." Zac thought to himself. As soon as he got home, he made a 3:00 appointment with his doctor two days away.

***

Fatima and Andi had met up during their lunch break to eat lunch and catch-up.

"Girl, it has been a busy week for me. How about you?" Andi asked.

"It's been pretty good so far."

"I know you said Zac on the Sherri Show the other day. That's why I called you, but you sent me to voicemail, Chica."

Fatima giggles. "I know, but I didn't want to talk about it."

"Girl, he was expressing his love for you to the world." Said Andi.

"It's not easy knowing the man of your dreams has a baby on the way and it's not yours." Fatima said sadly.

"Aww, T I never heard you speak like that."

***

A few days later, Zac and Tia meet for the doctor's appointment.

"Hi Doctor Jackson. We're here to get a checkup to see how far along she is." said Zac.

"Hi Mr. and Mrs. Taylor." The doctor greeted them.

"Oh hell no. We're not married. We're not even together." Zac corrected.

"My apology."

"No problem, but it's Mr. Taylor and Ms. Bolding."

"Ok. Ms. Bolding can you change into this?" She hands her the gown.

When she returns, the doctor checks her blood and things.

"Give me a few minutes." said the Doctor.

Zac gets up to make a call while they are waiting for the results.

Once the Doc returns, she gives them the test results.

"Mr. Taylor, Ms. Bolding. Looking at the blood test Ms. Bolding you are not pregnant."

"What? I must have had a missed miscarriage."

Zac looked at her like she was crazy.

"Um, there was no signs of a miscarriage." Said the doctor.

"The at home pregnancy test were positive." Tia told them.

"Tia, stop." Zac tried to tell Tia in a nice way to let it go. 

The doctor also told her that the at home test are not always 100% accurate.

Tia goes to put back on her clothes, they thanked the doctor and left. 

Once they got outside Zac couldn't wait to get on Tia.

"So, you lied about being pregnant." Zac said disappointedly. "You know you are a low-down skank."

"Zac don't..." she grabs his arm.

"Nope, get off of me. Lose my number, my address, and I don't want to see or hear from you again. If you see me passing by, look the other way. If you hear my name, act like you don't know me. I'm not playing with you Tia."

He gets in his car and drives off.

Zac got home and released all his hurt, pain, and anger. He was not upset that she wasn't pregnant, he was upset at what she did, and how it broke him and Fatima up.

It's 9:00 pm, Zac is slouched on the couch in his man cave. He had a few drinks. By the morning he was knocked out with a hand over.

He missed his therapy session. Dr. G had been calling him. One of his team members had stopped by the house, but Zac didn't answer. 

Later that day Dr. G had called again, no answer. He called Zac's emergency contact, which was his mother.

"I'm sorry to bother you Ms. Taylor. This is Dr, Gregory, Zac's therapist. Zac had a session today but didn't attend. That's not like him. He would at least call if he couldn't make it. I would consider us pretty close, but I haven't heard from him. He has you listed as his emergency contact, so I wanted to see if you could get in touch with him and have him to call me."

"Thanks for reaching out to me. I will try giving him a call." said Ms. Janet.

As soon as they hung up, she dialed Zac's number, no answer. Then she called Zoe. 

"Zoe call your brother on three-way."

He did. Zac finally answered.

"What do you want nigga?"

"Zachary Taylor, Jr. It's your mother. What's going on? Where have you been, I've been trying to call you?"

"Ma, why are you so loud?"

"Do I need to come up there?" asked Ms. Janet. Then all you could hear was a dial tone.

"Zoe, are you busy this weekend? Book us a flight. I need to go check on my son."